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J. SGHMITTf KNITTING MACHINE WITH TRANSPLAOEABLE THREAD GUIDES.

No. 583,129. Pa tented May 25, 1897.

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I T N 5 i Q 1 ZI ll I z 1 a Q fan 024277- wwwjm Wil /ass s J om t e e h 5U w e e h S A T m l- M H O S m .mw d O M 0 m KNITTING MACHINE WITH TRANSPLAOEABLE THREAD GUIDES.

No. 583,129. Patented May 25, 1897.

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J. SGHMITT.

V KNITTING MACHINE WITH TRANSPLAGEABLB THREAD. GUIDES. No. 583,129. Patented May 25,1897.

J fa? 0? 14* n mill/(W UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE.

JOI-IANNSOHMITT, OF COLOGNE, GERMANY, ASSIGN OR OF TWO-THIRDS TO JEAN BAPTIST OOBLENZER, OF COBLENZ, GERMANY.

KNITTING- MACHINE WITH TRANSPLACEABLE TH READ-GUIDE.

SPECIFICATION forming part of Letters Patent No. 583,129, dated May 25, 1897.

Application filed September 25, 1896. Serial No. 606,974. (No model.) Patented in Germany S t b 21, 1893, No. 78,327;

in Sweden June 7,1894,N0.6,247; in France June 7,1894, No.239,111; in Belgium June '7, 1894, No! 110,323; in Austria-Hungary June 20, 1894, No. 13,687 and No. 24,098; in Switzerland June 27, 1894, No. 8,863, in Italy June 27,1894, No. 36,671; in England June 27,1894, N0. 12,424,andin Denmark March 26, 1896, N0. 479.

To all whom it may concern: machine, or, more precisely, the spiral, is then I Be it known that I, J OHANN SOHMITT, a subturned in an opposite direction as long as the ject of the King of Prussia, German Emperor, thread-guide is operated by said other shaft. and a resident of Cologne, in the Province of This is done until the next row of meshes is 5 the Rhine, Kingdom of Prussia, German Emcompleted, when the thread-guide is again pire, have invented certain new and useful transplaced and the direction of rotation of Improvements in Knitting Machines with the spiral is again reversed. The fabric pro- 5 5 Transplaceable Thread- Guides, (for which. duced by this manner of working is a fiat or patents have been obtained in Sweden, No. open one. There is in said fabric the draw- IO 6,247, dated June 7, 1894; in Germany, No. back that the meshes are very Wide. In other 78,327, dated September 21, 1893; in France, words, the fabric is very loose. This results No. 239,111, dated June 7, 1894; in Belgium, from the point of the thread-guide lying not No. 110,323, dated June 7, 1894 5 in Austriaalways close to the spiral, but in a certain Hungary, No. 13,687 and No. 24,098, dated distance therefrom. During the time in I 5 June 20, 1894; in Switzerland, No. 8,863,dated which the thread-guide is operated from the June 27, 1894; in Italy, No. 36,671, dated June lower shaft its point lies close to the respec- 27,=1894; in Great Britain, No. 12,424, dated tive (left hand) end of the spiral, but when June 27 1894, and in Denmark, No. 479, the thread-guide has been transplaced to the dated March 26, 1896,) of which the following upper shaft then there is a distance between 20 is an exact specification. the point of the thread-guide and the respec- This invention refers to knitting-machines tive (right hand) end of the spiral. Thereof the kind in which the fabric is carried as fore the first, third, fifth, dam, rows of meshes well as transported by means of a horizontal are duly narrow, whereas the second, fourth, horseshoe-like spiral, which is turned in such sixth, &c.,' rows are unduly wide. It might 25 a manner that the two ends of the spiral, or seem that this drawback could be overcome the first winding and the last winding of the by letting the point of the thread-guide be same, respectively rotate in contrary direcsituated not exactly at the convex edge of the tions. There is in said knitting-machines latter but in the middle between the convex employed a thread-guide carrying the thread and the concave edge of the same. The

0 through that mesh which is just held by the meshes produced while the thread-guide is last winding of the spiral or which is to be operated by the upper shaft would then be dropped next, respectively, and carrying then but half so wide as formerly, it is true, but the loop now formed out of the thread to the the meshes produced while the thread-guide first winding of the spiral, so that said loop is operated by the lower shaft would be twice 3 5 is taken up by said first winding, and is thus as wide as formerly. Therefore the fabric turned into a mesh. consisting of said combined meshes or com- Aknitting-qnachine of the kind in question bined rows of meshes, respectively, would is shown and described in the United States practically be exactly as loose as formerly. Patent No. 421,526, dated February 18, 1890. Arranging one of the two thread-guide-op- 0 There are in said machine two shafts for operating shafts above and the other below the crating the thread-guide. One shaft is situspiral is a consequence of the facts that, ated above the spiral, the other below the first, the thread must in any case pass into same, and the thread-guide is operated alterand through the eye of the thread-guide from nately by said two shafts. In other words, one and the same side of the latter, and, sec- 45 when one row of meshes (according to the ond,the machine would be practically useless number of windings of the spiral) is completed if the thread-guide had to be unthreaded and the thread is removed from the respective rethreaded at every time of its being trans- 5 shaft and put upon the other shaft, and the placed.

The purpose of my invention is to produce a knitted fabric all the meshes of which are of due narrowness, and I attain that object, first, by letting the eye extend through the thread-guide not from the front side to the rear side of the latter, but from the convex side or edge to the concave side or edge of the same, so that the eye lies about radially to the axis of oscillation of the thread-guide or to the respective shaft of the latter, respectively, and, second, by arranging both the shafts for said altered thread-guide below the spiral. I am enabled to do this on account of the novel position of the eye of the threadguide, and by combining said novel position of the thread-guide with the novel position of the thrcad-guide-operating shafts, or, more precisely, of one of said shafts, I obtain the advantage of having the point of the threadguide lie in any case close to the spiral. In other words, there is no longer an undue space between the latter and said point.

In order to make my invention more clear, I refer to the accompanying drawings, in which similar letters denote similar parts throughout the different views,and in which Figure 1 is a diagrainmatical view of the two positions which the thread-guide n alternately received in the old form of construction of knitting-machin es of the kind in question. In the position I the thread-guide receives the meshes from the spiral end 0 and carries the fresh loops to the spiral end 0. In the position I I the thread-guide receives the meshes from the spiral end 0' and carries the fresh loops to the spiral end 0 n is the eye of the thread guide. It is distinctly to be seen that the eye passes from the front side to the rear side of the guide 01.

Fig. 1" is a plan of the main portion of the thread-guide.

Fig. 2 is a diagrammatica-l view of the two positions which the thread-guide alternately receives in my novel form of construction. The position I I is the same as formerly, butthe position I is another one, in that not the concave edge, (position I, Fig. 1,) but the convex edge of the thread-guide lies close to the spiral end 0 Fig. 2 is a plan of the main portion of my improved thread-guide. It is distinctly to be seen that the eye now passes from the convex side to the concave one, or vice versa.

Fig. 3 shows the thread-guide taking in eshes up from the spiral end 0 and carrying loops to the spiral end 0 Fig. I shows the threadguide takiu g meshes up from the spiral end 0 and carrying loops to the spiral end 0. Fig. 5 is a plan of my improved knittingmachine. Fig. 6 is a side view of the same. Fig. '7 is a front view of the same, the threadguide being put upon the left-hand shaft 0'. Fig. 8 shows the thread-guide put upon the right-hand shaft r. Fig. 9 is a diagrammatical rear view of the machine, showing the means for operating all the shafts of the same, the shaft of the bevel-wheel 00 bcingleft out.

Fig. 10 is a side view of the improved threadguide drawn on an enlarged scale, and Fig. 11 is a plan of the head of said thread-guide.

Referring to Figs. 5 and 6, s s are two standards which support four shafts rrr fi The shaft 0 carries a cog-wheel w and a bevelwheel 00 the former meshing with a cogwheel 00, secured to the shaft r the latter (bevel-wheel 00 meshing with a bevel-wheel as, secured to a shaft r The bevel-wheel 6 is provided with a handle The rear ends of the shafts r r are furnished with oscillating crank-arms .2 Fig. 9. The crank z is oscillated by the mediation of a rod .2 from a disk .2 secured to the rear end of the shaft 4 The crank is oscillated by means of an eccentric .2'*, attached to the rear end of the shaft 0". If, thus, the bevel-wheel 00" is turned by means of the handle a, the shafts r r are continuously rotated, whereas the shafts r r are merely oscillated. The front ends of the shafts r r are provided with boxes e, Figs. 5 and 0, having each an oblique series of projections or teeth c. The latter match with corresponding holes or cavities provided in the ends of the two legs of the horseshoeshaped spiral o. Said legs are held in proper position, first, by the arms on of the angular double-armed levers m m, Figs. 7 and 8, fulcrumed at m and, second, by the lower projecting ends 20, Figs. 5, '7, and 8, of the adjustable slides 20. The arms on, as well as the projections 10', are furnished with rollers bearing against opposite sides of each end of the spiral. In order to press the arms m against the latter, the ends of the arms on are somewhat enlarged and provided with conical borin gs, (shown in dotted lines in Fig. 6,) into which take eccentrically the points of screws 1). On serewin g the latter more or less forward the rollers of the arms in are more or less pressed against the spiral.

As to the mounting of the thread-guide n upon the front end of the shaft 0' or r, I refer to my United States Patent No. 421,596, heretofore mentioned.

That end of the spiral 0 which drops meshes must project beyond the other end, as shown in Fig. 5. As new either end of the spiral must be able to take up as well as to drop meshes it becomes requisite to letthe righthand end project one time beyond the lefthand one, Fig. 5, and at another time the left-hand end beyond the right-hand one. For this purpose there is arranged on each of the shafts r r a box (Z, carrying an arm (1 with a screw (Z and with a threaded pin (1. The latter is provided with a nut (1. By turning one of the screws (Z in the direction of the hands of a clock the respective boxes (Z and c are drawn forward, whereby a like displacement of the respective end of the spiral 0 is caused by the influence of the respective projections c on said end.

An important feature of my improved ma chine, or, more precisely, of the thread-guide of the same, resides in the configuration of the head of said thread-guide, I have shown said configuration in Figs. 10 and 11. The point n n of the thread-guide is connected with the shaft n of the same by an enlarged intermediate piece of, containing the eye n. The upper portion of the end of the shaft forms a wedge 01?, that extends close to said eye and the opposite portion of the point forms a wedge M, which also extends from the point proper, n close to the said eye. The purpose of the enlarged intermediate piece 01 is to provide a certain distance between the thread and the shaft, so that the point of the takeup spiral may freely enter the loop presented by the thread-guide, and the purpose of the low position of said piece 72- or the purpose of the wedges n 1%, respectively, is to hinder the thread h from coming from the rear side of the thread-guide to the front side of the same.

Figs. 3 and 4. represent the manner in which the meshes are formed and interlocked with each other if a fiat or straight fabric is to be produced. The spiral end 0, Fig. 3, is that which drops the meshes, and the thread-guide n is therefore assumed to be carried and operated by the shaft 0", Fig. 8. The mesh h is the .next to be dropped by the spiral end 0. The guide at enters that mesh beforehand and carries the thread it (coming from the last fresh inesh 7L2 and passing through the last mesh 7L3 dropped by the spiral end 0) into and through said mesh h. The loop formed thus out of the thread it is carried by the thread-guide into the way of the end proper or point of the spiral end 0 when said loop will be seized by its end and taken up as a fresh mesh.

After the respective row of meshes is completed the position of the thread-guide is re versed, when the operation just described will be repeated in a contrary direction. The meshes will then be dropped by the spiral end 0 Fig. 4, and the fresh loops will be taken up by the spiral end I). -This end, however,

must then project beyond the other end in accordance with the position of the respective parts shown in Fig. 5.

Having thus fully described the nature of this invention, what I desire to secure by Letters Patent of the United States is-- 1. A knitting-machine with a bent spiral for holding and transporting the meshes, an oscillating thread-guide adapted to cooperate with the ends of said spiral, and two shafts adapted alternately to receive said threadguide, in which the eye of the latter extends radially to the axis of oscillation of the said thread-guide, and in which both'said shafts are situated in a plane lying parallel to the longitudinal axis of said spiral, for the purpose as described.

2. A knitting-machine with a bent spiral for holding and transporting the meshes, an oscillating thread-guide adapted to-cooperate with the ends of said spiral, and two shafts adapted alternately to receive said threadguide in which the eye of the latter extends radially to the axis of oscillation of the said thread-guide, and in which both said shafts are situated in a plane lying parallel to the longitudinal axis of said spiral; the head of the thread-guide having an enlarged intermediate piece n containing said eye, for the purpose as described.

3. A knitting-machine with a bent spiral for holding and transporting the meshes, an oscillating thread-guide adapted to codperate with the ends of said spiral, and two shafts adapted alternately to receive said threadguide, in which the eye of the latter extends radially to the axis of oscillation of the said thread-guide, and in which both said shafts are situated in a plane lying parallel to the longitudinal axis of said spiral; the head of the thread-guide having an enlarged intermediate piece n forming the connection between the shaft 01. and its point 01?, and containing said eye n; the upper surface of said enlarged intermediate piece being situated below the corresponding surfaces of said shaft and said point, and the two latter parts forming projections n n extending upon the said enlarged intermediate piece in the direction to the said eye, for the purpose as described.-

In testimony whereof I have signed this specification in the presence of two subscribing witnesses.

Jo'HANN SOHMITT. 

